According to reports by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an estimated 20% of all reported automobile crashes each year involve some form of driver distraction. Thus, there has been significant interest recently regarding the issue of driver distraction, as well as concerns that many of the telematic features being planned for automobiles may lower their safety through increased driver distraction. How to measure driver distraction, how to model driver cognitive workload, and how to predict distractive effects are all open, important research issues.
Actions such as pushing a button or adjusting a knob often require the driver to glance away from the roadway in order to accurately locate the button or knob, e.g., to adjust the heating system or to change radio stations. While the driver is glancing away to perform the secondary task, the driver's attention to the primary task of driving the vehicle is distracted, and thus secondary tasks are associated with an increased driver distraction level.
Because of the high level of danger associated with driver distraction, it would be desirable to provide a system that utilizes measures of driver distraction derived from driver manipulation of controls within a vehicle to adjust various parameters of the vehicle in order to account for the driver's lack of attention to driving. It would be further desirable to provide a system that may be applied in situations beyond driving to those involving operators of various types of equipment such as manufacturing or process-related equipment.